Found Still Life

The assignment was to take a walk around my neighborhood and find something that doesn't belong there.

Studio as Still Life

I was to paint my studio . . . otherwise known as the dining area. Alas, the coffee can is a bit slanted. I admit I did not analyze beforehand. I must remember that.

Still Life as Narrative

This probably doesn't qualify as a true still life, but I chose an image that came to me from the lyrics of the George Harrison song, Beware of Darkness. "While weeping willow cedars, they just want to grow, grow and grow, beware of darkness."

I enjoyed making a chromatic black with scarlet and viridian green.

Texture

I need to pay more attention keeping the plumb line of the whisk and paste brush and other like objects with handles straight.

Space

The idea was to choose three large objects and arrange them in space, the darker, smaller-appearing object in the background, the middle value bigger-appearing object in the mid ground, and the lightest, biggest-appearing object in the foreground. Even though I was getting tired and hated this painting while I was doing it, I liked it more when I quit painting and left it for a while.

Form

The drapery is improving, and the viewfinder continues to be a big help. The purpose of this exercise was to choose three or four objects of different shapes and perhaps include forms that seem to have no shape like smoke or water. I would have improved the jar of water by putting more brown behind the jar handle, though I did not see it when looking at it. In art school the teacher told us we were allowed to make the glass clear to show it is glass even if we don't see it in real life. Since I'm still learning with acrylic gouache, I want to practice incorporating other colors in the flat colors. I cut out from a magazine a Cezanne I admired that the white pitcher and dish were filled with other colors. I love it.

Shape

I like this picture, and frankly, all the pictures, better live in person than in the jpeg scan. I like the ends of the two books in slip cases lost in the shadows. It really helped to use a viewfinder. Perhaps I should spend a little more time and finish the paintings by adding at least hints of the lettering on the books.

Color

I've got to quit having little groups of little things in the middle of the support. Tomorrow I'm going to make a viewfinder and think a little more about cropping and composition. I'd never worked with acrylic gouache before and am becoming more at ease with it. I did like, however, using complementary colors to make the shadows.

Value

I like the roll of paper towels; that was a successful study in value. I need to practice more on drapery and eggs. It helped to take time to analyze what I have to do before painting.

Line

I started a book called One Painting a Day by Timothy Callaghan. What I learned from this painting is to take a minute before painting to analyze, point out to myself, to remember I am right-handed and tend to paint lines uphill if I don't watch myself. I was reminded that the best way to start a piece when I was taking piano lessons was to stop and analyze the piece before playing: notice the key signature and the time.